Race and Medicine in America
AMST 256
Fall 2015
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
SISP 256 |
| Course Cluster: Disability Studies, Health Studies, Queer Studies |
This course will trace ideas of race in American medical science and its cultural contexts, 1840s-present. We will explore how configurations of racial difference have changed over time and how medical knowledge about the body has both influenced, and helped to shape, social, political, and popular cultural forces. We will interrogate the idea of medical knowledge as a "naturalizing" discourse that produces racial classifications as essential, and biologically based.
We will treat medical sources as primary documents, imagining them as but one interpretation of the meaning of racial difference, alongside alternate sources that will include political tracts, advertisements, photographs, newspaper articles, and so on. In doing so, we will make use of the archival materials at Wesleyan's library, and students will be responsible for collecting and displaying their own primary document evidence to contribute to the course.
Key concepts explored will include medicine under slavery, theories of racial hierarchy and evolution, the eugenics movement, "race-specific" medications and diseases, public health politics and movements, genetics and modern "roots" projects, transracial adoption and surrogacy, intersections of race and disability. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST)(HRAD-MN)(IDEA-MN)(IDEA)(STS) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Excerpted texts will include:
Harriet Washington, MEDICAL APARTHEID
Keith Wailoo, PAIN: A POLITICAL HISTORY
Alondra Nelson, BODY AND SOUL: THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY AND THE FIGHT AGAINST MEDICAL DISCRIMINATION
David Serlin, REPLACEABLE YOU
Sander Gilman, THE JEW'S BODY
Susan Bordo, UNBEARABLE WEIGHT
Dorothy Roberts, KILLING THE BLACK BODY
Ronald Takaki, STRANGERS FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE
Natalia Molina, FIT TO BE CITIZENS? PUBLIC HEALTH AND RACE IN LOS ANGELES, 1879-1939
Troy Duster, BACKDOOR TO EUGENICS
Nayan Shah, CONTAGIOUS DIVIDES: RACE AND EPIDEMICS IN SAN FRANCISCO'S CHINATOWN
Laura Briggs, REPRODUCING EMPIRE: RACE, SEX, SCIENCE AND US IMPERIALISM IN PUERTO RICO
Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Loic Wacquant, COMMODIFYING BODIES
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Examinations and Assignments:
In-class participation
In-class midterm
2 Short Essays
In-class final |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course may be used to meet the pre-1900 requirement for AMST majors. |
| Instructor(s): Glick,Megan H. Times: ..T.R.. 09:00AM-10:20AM; Location: FISK413; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 30 | | SR major: 6 | JR major: 10 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 10 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 4 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 4 |
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